The Town of Oliver is setting aside a hearing to "hash out" some
details in local bylaws prior to the legalization of the sale of
recreational marijuana.

Council on Monday "decimated," as Coun. Larry Schwartzenberger put it,
a staff recommendation to restrict cannabis sales via zoning bylaws in
Oliver, as well as a $15,000 ask to hire a consultant to determine the
wishes of the community.

"We will be able to approve or disapprove an application. If something
is in the commercial zone that's too close to a park or school, we
will just not approve it," Schwartzenberger said.

Just a day after being elected head of Ontario's PC party, Ford has
announced he'll repeal the Liberal's sexed curriculum, hand marijuana
sales back to the people and make a decision on permitting Patrick
Brown to run as the PC candidate in the riding of Simcoe North.

While political pundits are licking their pencils in anticipation of
analyzing Ford's every move, the newly elected leader is already out
there working the crowd and winning over voters.

A suspended Hamilton police officer fed drug traffickers sensitive
information and favours in return for cash payments, a Crown attorney
said Monday during his opening address to a Toronto jury.

Craig Ruthowsky, a former member of the Hamilton Police Service's guns
and gangs unit, has pleaded not guilty to obstruction of justice,
bribery, breach of trust, trafficking and conspiracy to commit an
indictable offence.

He became ensnared in a Toronto Police Service wiretap investigation
called Project Pharaoh aimed at gathering evidence of drug and firearm
trafficking in Toronto's west end, Crown attorney John Pollard said in
Superior Court.

The legalization of pot may be looming but that doesn't mean police
are backing off their crackdown on the "grey" marijuana market.

Most recently, RCMP in Colchester County raided the Community
Compassion Centre in Bible Hill. They seized cash, marijuana,
marijuana derivatives and drug paraphernalia, and charged Ricky Joseph
Leclerc, 51, of Upper Kennetcook.

He's scheduled to appear in Nova Scotia provincial court
Friday.

"The RCMP will continue to work within the existing legislation under
the Controlled Drug and Substances Act," RCMP spokesman Cpl. Dal
Hutchinson said Monday in an email. "If we determine that there is a
violation of the legislation, we will take appropriate action."

This disease has spread throughout North America. The desire to earn
quick money without any hard work has pushed many Punjabi youth into
drug trafficking.

Last year a Punjabi husband and wife were caught by the RCMP with
cocaine worth $8.4 million. It was a large consignment of drugs being
taken from the United States to Calgary. The couple, identified as
Gurminder Singh Toor, 31, and Kirandeep Kaur Toor, 26, were arrested
in connection with the cocaine.

You can still have your say about cannabis restrictions in the
community until Wednesday afternoon but concerns have been raised
about people being able to submit more than one survey.

"Yes, there are no restrictions based on IP addresses as this is city
policy," said Jim Genge senior planner, planning and development services.

Restrictions would make it difficult to complete the survey, including
for the more than 500 who completed it at the Home and Garden Trade
Show, he said. It would also restrict more than one person in a
household from having a say.

Suspended Hamilton cop Craig Ruthowsky revealed that he aided a drug
dealer to cultivate his trust so he could snare a larger trafficker,
his former best friend testified Tuesday.

Sgt. James Paterson, who once considered himself Ruthowsky's "best
friend," confronted Ruthowsky after he was suspended in 2012 while
both were working for Hamilton's guns and gangs unit.

"Craig Ruthowsky advised me that the dealer was dangling a bigger fish
in front of him that he wanted to get, this major importer Officer
Ruthowsky had said 'I was trying to make myself look like a dirty cop
so that will trust me more, and he'd give up the bigger fish,'" said
Paterson.

News release that called for study to make personal use legal called
'a surprise'

Things started off on a pretty collegial tone Tuesday morning in
Vancouver city council.

Much of the morning session was concerned with development plans for
an 8.4-hectare site in south Vancouver. Councillors echoed their
support for the project, and one commented on proceedings going "so
smoothly." The mayor agreed, saying it was nice to conduct the meeting
"without the kind of friction that can sometimes occur."

This summer, millennials, their anxious parents and users from
Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to Bay Street will get what they long
believed was their right - the opportunity to toke up legally.

That will be a seminal societal event (pun intended). However, what is
attracting less attention than it should are breakthrough discoveries
about how non-psychoactive cannabis extracts can alleviate suffering
and treat diseases that afflict hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

Legalization of a substance for recreational purposes and medical
studies should be unrelated issues. But since they are based on the
same plant, legal prohibitions and social stigma have held back
research, thereby prolonging the suffering of patients and costing
lives.

For 16 years, every elementary school student in this small town has
learned about drugs from Thaxter. But this year, his lesson needed to
change, and he was about to find out whether the students knew why.

The owner of a Bible Hill marijuana dispensary has been charged for
the second time in six months with possession for the purpose of
trafficking.

Ricky Joseph Leclerc, 51, of Upper Kennetcook, was arrested after
police executed a search warrant at the Community Compassion Centre, a
marijuana storefront on Pictou Road.

Leclerc is to appear in court in Truro on March 21 to enter a plea to
the charge.

The RCMP said in a news release that members of the Colchester County
Integrated Street Crime Enforcement Unit had seized a quantity of
cash, marijuana, marijuana derivatives and drug paraphernalia during
their search last Friday.

The local public health agency says smoking marijuana should be banned
in multi-unit buildings, including balconies

The local health unit is throwing its support behind the City of
Ottawa's public health agency after they called for a ban on smoking
marijuana inside multi-unit residential buildings - including on balconies.

Last week, Ottawa's acting medical officer of health recommended the
Ontario government extend its proposed ban on pot smoking in common
areas of condos, apartment buildings and university residences, hotels
and their balconies.

In 2018 we find ourselves battling an opioid crisis that has been
years in the making. Opioids are drugs that act on the nervous system
to relieve pain and were originally derived from opium but now also
include synthetic preparations.

In the mid-1990s, their use by physicians was heavily promoted by the
pharmaceutical industry, leading to greater prescribing for both acute
and chronic pain. Patients using opioids can develop a dependency or
addiction.

There are two sources of opioids: those that are produced by the
pharmaceutical industry and those that are illicitly produced.
Recently, the illicit supply has become so contaminated with fentanyl
(a very powerful opioid) or fentanyl-like substances that many people
are at risk of an unintended acute and potentially fatal poisoning.

Near the historic native village of Kitwancool in northern B.C., the
hereditary chief of the Gitanyow frog clan has his eye on an old
logging site that could be the perfect place to grow a new cash crop.

"It's already serviced with a power supply," said Will Marsden. "We
see an opportunity for our people to be employed in sustainable jobs
in our traditional territories."

Those jobs would be in the legal marijuana trade, coming soon to
British Columbia and the rest of Canada.

A popular marijuana website has told the state's cannabis czar that
she lacks the authority to make the company stop running
advertisements for unlicensed pot retailers.

In a letter sent Monday to Lori Ajax of the Bureau of Cannabis
Control, Doug Francis and Chris Beals of Weedmaps.com said the company
is not licensed by the bureau and therefore not subject to its
enforcement.

They also said Weedmaps is protected from such action because the
company is an "interactive computer service" covered under the federal
Communications Decency Act. The law states that such a service shall
not be treated as the publisher of information provided by a third
party.

Unlicensed marijuana delivery companies are operating across
Sacramento County, drawing the ire of legal pot retailers and warnings
from state and local regulators.

Regulators cite concerns about the delivery companies not paying fees
and taxes and selling weed that hasn't been tested for pesticides or
other possible toxins. They say the companies are threatening the
financial viability of legal retailers who must pay those costs in a
new legal marijuana market that started in California on Jan. 1.

In Sacramento County, about 200 marijuana delivery services were
advertising Friday on the website Weedmaps.com. Only one jurisdiction
in the county, the city of Sacramento, has plans to allow cannabis
delivery services, and it has yet to issue permits. In the interim,
city pot czar Joe Devlin has told delivery companies to register with
city, and eight have done so.

A former Pennsylvania narcotics agent will plead guilty to conspiring
to launder money from a seizure of nearly $1.8 million in illicit drug
proceeds in 2014, federal court records show.

By pleading guilty Timothy B. Riley, a retired state attorney
general's office agent, could be sent to prison for up to 20 years and
fined up to $500,000, according to a plea agreement filed in U.S.
District Court in Harrisburg.

Federal authorities charged Riley, 48, of Philadelphia, on Feb. 23
with accepting three cash payments totaling $48,000, which he knew was
stolen from a drug dealer. Riley then deposited the money and used it
in financial transactions, according to David Freed, U.S. attorney of
Pennsylvania's Middle District.

Curtis McGowan wrestled with his opioid addiction for years, but his
suspected overdose while in prison raises serious questions

On one of his many trips home from jail, Curtis McGowan beamed with
pride and clutched a Dr. Seuss book.

"Mom," said the six-foot, 300-pound foundry worker, handing Michele
McPherson a copy of Green Eggs and Ham, "this is the first book I ever
read."

To mother and son, it was a moment filled with significance. He'd
struggled with illiteracy his whole life, just like he'd struggled
with drug use and mental-health problems. If he could learn to read,
perhaps sobriety and serenity were not far off.

Last week there were two rallies organized to address the opioid
crisis - one in the city and the other on the Blood Reserve. On Monday
night, I attended the Community in Crisis March that started at City
Hall and ended with a candlelight vigil at Galt Gardens. Several very
touching speeches were given by citizens who have been impacted by the
opioid crisis and are determined to fight back.

Our Mayor and local MLA Maria Fitzpatrick also provided remarks
echoing the sentiment that this crisis sees no boundaries - it does
not discriminate. They also reaffirmed we must continue with harm
reduction efforts and band together as communities.

Home growing expected to be addressed in House of Assembly this
spring

Federal legislation, provincial legislation, contracts and regulation
- - there's plenty still in the works when it comes to having legal,
recreational marijuana in Newfoundland and Labrador.

In the coming weeks, more will be said on growing your own cannabis
and on Canopy Growth's in-province production facility. More is also
expected to be brought to the House of Assembly on marijuana in the
workplace, and occupational, health and safety implications of
legalization.

It is a misnomer for the media to always mention "guns and gangs" when
it comes to the violent exchange between gangs. Guns are not the
problem; the problem is the control of drugs and contraband, which the
gangs are fighting over.

Gangs, no matter where, will use whatever means available to get their
share of the lucrative and fast-growing drug market. In my opinion, a
review of the escalation of drug availability and use would be more
beneficial than creating ad hoc committees to study guns and gangs.

A bill in the Maryland General Assembly had sought to add more black
firms to the state's regulated medical marijuana industry.

Instead it might end up favoring existing players -- nearly all of
whom are white-owned companies.

A bill in the Maryland General Assembly had sought to add more black
firms to the state's regulated medical marijuana industry.

Instead it might end up favoring existing players -- nearly all of
whom are white-owned companies.

Given how much the Legislative Black Caucus has complained about the
lack of minority-owned firms among Maryland's medical marijuana
growers and processors, it may seem crazy that the legislation
designed to address the issue that just passed overwhelmingly in the
House could lead to more white men getting licenses.

There's no buzzkill like bureaucracy. A new proposal by Ottawa Public
Health to ban marijuana - once it's legal - from condos and
apartments, seems like overreach to us.

As the Sun's Andrew Duffy reports today, Ottawa's acting medical
officer of health has recommended that the province extend its
proposed ban on pot smoking in common areas of condos, apartment
buildings and university residences. Dr. Vera Etches said the province
should prohibit smoking cannabis, e-liquids and herbal shisha products
in condos, apartment buildings, university residences, hotels and
their balconies.

On Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory on the shores of Lake Ontario, dead
centre between Toronto and Montreal, there are more than 20 pot
dispensaries and at least 30 smoke shacks selling cheap cigarettes.

The population of Tyendinaga is 2,124.

Do the math.

At the Six Nations Mohawk Territory, however, the largest First
Nations reserve in Canada with a population of 12,000-plus living on
the reserve, there is a huge sign on the main highway indicating zero
tolerance to illicit drugs.

Should condo owners and tenants be allowed to smoke pot in their homes
and on their balconies?

Ottawa Public Health's newly released position paper has ignited
debate on those questions, and set the scene for a confrontation
between pot smokers who want to exercise their hard-won right to use
legal weed later this year, and non-smokers who want to be protected
from the effects of second-hand smoke.

Shery Dia, a writer and University of Ottawa student, supports the
health unit's call for a strict smoking ban inside multi-unit
buildings. She plans to move from her current apartment because of the
persistent incursion of pot smoke into her fifth-floor unit of a
Gloucester highrise.

Employers are struggling to hire workers in tightening U.S. job
market. Marijuana is now legal in nine states and Washington, D.C.,
meaning more than one in five American adults can eat, drink, smoke or
vape as they please. The result is the slow decline of pre-employment
drug tests, which for decades had been a requirement for new recruits
in industries ranging from manufacturing to finance.

As of the beginning of 2018, Excellence Health Inc., a Las Vegas-based
health care company with around 6,000 employees, no longer drug tests
people coming to work for the pharmaceutical side of the business. The
company stopped testing for marijuana two years ago. "We don't care
what people do in their free time," said Liam Meyer, a company
spokesperson. "We want to help these people, instead of saying: 'Hey,
you can't work for us because you used a substance,'" he added. The
company also added a hotline for any workers who might be struggling
with drug use.

New provincial funding to help police officers detect impaired drivers
is a good start, but Brockville's chief of police says they are still
being left with too many unanswered questions.

The province announced Friday it is "stepping up support for
municipalities and law enforcement to help ensure communities and
roads are safe in advance of the federal government's legalization of
cannabis."

This will be done, they said, by providing $40 million of its revenue
from the federal duty on recreational cannabis over two years to help
all municipalities with implementation costs related to the
legalization of cannabis.

The provincial government will provide $40 million of its revenue from
the federal excise duty on recreational cannabis over two years to
help municipalities with the costs of implementing
legislation.

But municipalities have not yet received any more information about
what that will mean exactly.

The province has said that funding will be distributed to
municipalities on a per household basis with a minimum of $10,000 per
municipality.

"We know municipalities will play a key role as the federal government
moves forward with the legalization of recreational cannabis. This is
why we engaged with municipalities early I the process," said Minister
of Municipal Affairs Bill Mauro. "Our government respects the role of
municipalities in the legalization of cannabis and we know we can rely
on their valuable input as we continue to navigate this process together."

The government of Ontario will give municipalities $40 million from
its share of federal marijuana taxes to help cover law enforcement and
safety costs associated with pot legalization, the province announced
Friday.

The money - which will be provided to municipalities upfront,
beginning before legalization takes effect later this year - will come
from the first two years of federal excise duties on producers of
recreational pot.

"This funding will ensure that Ontario's municipalities have dedicated
resources for cannabis enforcement," said Marie-France Lalonde,
minister of community safety and correctional services. "Ontario will
continue working with law enforcement agencies to protect our
communities from illegal cannabis activity, and to keep impaired
drivers off the road."

Jason Kenney stated recently that the best way to combat drug addition
in general, and the opioid crisis in particular, is by controlling
supply. This demonstrates that he is little more than a cynical,
career politician. He will say whatever he thinks will resonate with
his base in the hope of becoming the next premier.

Mr. Kenney has routinely prostrated himself at the alter of the free
market, and is one who regards state intervention in the economy as
devil's work. He knows that where there is a demand, entrepreneurs
will invest capital with the aim of meeting that demand. In light of
well-established and widely accepted market theory, Mr. Kenney should
know - as I suspect he does - that the best way to address crises such
as the one we are witnessing is to also address the demand side of the
equation.

As Canada moves closer to legalizing the recreational use of
marijuana, many are speculating on how the decision will affect
society and the economy. While some are concerned about health and
safety effects, others are optimistic about potential new tax revenues
and the prospect of bringing the sale and distribution of marijuana
out of the criminal sphere.

One area that few are talking about, however, is how legal marijuana
will affect residential property markets.

The sheer volume of human suffering has been increasing exponentially
in recent months as a new and deadly wave of opioids scythes through
local drug users and addicts, says Const. Ryan Darroch, a 15-year
veteran of the Lethbridge Police Service, and a beat cop with the
downtown policing unit.

"We have not yet confirmed carfentanil (behind the recent overdoses)
through our lab analysis," he emphasizes, "but we have seized
carfentanil in the city. A lot of the street people we talk to in the
downtown, and all over this city, refer to it as 'Car.' It almost
looks like that candy Nerds. They tell us they take that carfentanil
and mix it with a water solution in those little blue vials people may
see on the streets on the ground. They mix that solution in little
green mixing bowls, and it breaks down the opioid inside that and they
may then draw that solution into a needle and inject it into
themselves. Fentanyl or

One of the most desired outcomes of opening the ARCHES Supervised
Consumption Site in Lethbridge is a reduction in the number of
incidents of public drug use and disposal of drugdebris in the
downtown core.

While it is too early to say whether or not that outcome has been
achieved, Terra Plato, CEO of the Lethbridge Public Library, stated
the early signs at the Main Branch were positive.

"Like the rest of this city, the library has experienced the same
impacts downtown in terms of drug debris and that sort of thing,"
Plato said. "The general sense, the feeling around the library, is
that, yes, we have seen a positive difference since the Supervised
Consumption Site has opened. But I cannot really comment on the number
of needles, and that sort of thing. We just don't have that data yet."

The Quinte region's board of health is asking Ontario for a share of
the coming tax revenue from cannabis sales in order to fight expected
health impacts.

"We want some of the tax money because there's going to be costs to
public health and to municipalities," said Dr. Ian Gemmill, the acting
medical officer of health for Hastings and Prince Edward Counties.

Revenue from the taxation of legal cannabis sales, which are to begin
in July, is to be split with provinces and territories, with the
federal government retaining 25 per cent to a maximum federal revenue
of $ 100 million.

Like many civic leaders across Canada, councillors in the town of
Hampstead, Que., were worried about the idea of people smoking
marijuana on the street once the drug became legal. So they drew up a
tough bylaw - and it's set to become the most restrictive anti-smoking
measure in the country.

In a move that experts predict will motivate other Canadian
municipalities, the town of 7,100 has adopted a draft bylaw that would
ban smoking everywhere in public, including streets and sidewalks.

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors won't take on small-time marijuana
cases, despite the Justice Department's decision to lift an Obama-era
policy that discouraged U.S. authorities from cracking down on the pot
trade in states where the drug is legal, Attorney General Jeff
Sessions said today.

Federal law enforcement lacks the resources to take on "routine cases"
and will continue to focus on drug gangs and larger conspiracies,
Sessions said. The comments come after the Trump administration in
January threw the burgeoning marijuana legalization movement into
uncertainty by reversing the largely hands-off approach that prevailed
during the Obama administration, saying federal prosecutors should
instead handle marijuana cases however they see fit.

With legal recreational marijuana in the wings, Lethbridge remains
divided on its use.

The latest survey of city residents shows an even 50-50 split when
asked if they support legalization. But support is up from 43.9 per
cent in 2016 and 46.6 per cent last year, as reported by the Citizen
Society Research Lab at Lethbridge College.

On several other oncecontroversial issues, however, there's less
disagreement. Lethbridge residents continue to agree largely with
same-gender marriage (77.3 per cent), doctorassisted death (79.5 per
cent) and a woman's right to abortion (81.7 per cent).

There's a lot of truth-bending in political campaigns. Remember
then-presidential candidate Donald Trump's false assertion in 2015
that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the 9/11 attacks?
Or how about Hillary Clinton's tall tale in her 2008 campaign that on
a trip to Bosnia, "I remember landing under sniper fire. aE& We just
ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."
That, too, didn't happen.

FRANKFORT -- Four law enforcement officials and a doctor urged state
lawmakers Tuesday to say no to a bill that would legalize medical marijuana.

For more than an hour, opponents of House Bill 166 told members of the
House Judiciary Committee the ills they see in it.

Their predictions about passage of the measure included an increase in
crime, creation of trafficking problems along the state's borders, an
enhancement of economic and social costs, temptations of children to
use marijuana and uncertain physical outcomes over long-term usage.

Major alcohol companies will likely see sales squeezed by legal
cannabis in the coming years, according to Wall Street research firm
CFRA Research.

"Due to shared usage occasions, we view the legalization of cannabis
as a threat to alcohol industry consumption growth," wrote CFRA
analyst Joe Agnese, who covers the food and beverage and tobacco
industries, in a note published Monday.

Agnese cites Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, The Boston Beer Company and
Brown-Forman Corp., best known for Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey, as
companies that could see a decline in product consumption.

In the 1960s, after some prodding from Ralph Nader, American
government regulators began a major push for safer cars. Which made
University of Chicago economist Sam Peltzman wonder just how much
safer these innovations made us. Specifically, he wondered about what
economists call "moral hazard" - our tendency to take more risks when
we're insulated from the costs of that risk-taking.

In 1975, Peltzman published an article innocuously titled "The Effects
of Automobile Safety Regulation." His conclusion, however, was
explosive: "Data imply some saving of auto occupants' lives at the
expense of more pedestrian deaths and more nonfatal accidents." Less
fearful of accidents, drivers were piloting their vehicles more
recklessly, substantially reducing the life-saving benefits of the
regulation. Economist Gordon Tullock suggested that if regulators
really wanted people to drive more safely, they'd require automakers
to mount a spike in the middle of each steering wheel, pointed toward
the driver's breast.

MONTREAL * A Montreal suburb's plan to ban all smoking in public
places is drawing mixed reactions, with one anti-tobacco advocate
saying it will do more harm than good when it comes to second-hand
smoke.

Hampstead city council adopted a draft bylaw this week that would
prohibit tobacco or marijuana smoking on municipal property, including
sidewalks and streets.

If the bylaw is enacted, Hampstead would become the first municipality
in the country to ban smoking in the street, according to the Canadian
Cancer Society.

Deadly fentanyl is tightening its grip on London's jail, with reports
of several female inmates overdosing early this week, one needing five
doses of naloxone spray to be revived.

Twice in the last week, large amounts were found on women trying to
smuggle the druginto the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC),
sources say.

The province confirmed Wednesday four female inmates were found in
medical distress Monday night.

"Staff acted quickly in attending to the inmates and calling 911.
Paramedics arrived and transported three inmates to the hospital,
while the other inmate was attended to by staff at the facility," said
Andrew Morrison, spokesperson for the Ministry of Community Safety and
Correctional Services.

Two people using fentanyl at London's temporary overdose prevention
site on the weekend were resuscitated by a nurse after they overdosed,
Middlesex-London's medical officer of health says.

"These people were inexperienced, and fentanyl is a drug where it's
easy to miscalculate how much you are taking. If this had happened in
a back alley or stairwell somewhere, it could have easily resulted in
death," Dr. Chris Mackie said Sunday.